Wind Ensemble

EDGES is inspired by several events in my life over the period of 1995-97.  Two are near-death experiences, while the third is the sudden passing of one of my closest colleagues and best friends, Professor Robert Cooper.  

The first movement, "BACK FROM THE EDGE", is a chronicle of the battle that I waged with "flesh-eating strep", which nearly cost me my life in spring, 1995.  A fragment of a line from French playwright Jean Genet’s “Prisoner of Love” served as additional inspiration: 

 “perhaps all music, even the newest, is not so much something discovered as something that re-emerges from where it lay in memory, inaudible as a melody cut in a disc of flesh.  A composer lets me hear a song that has always been shut up silent within me.”

In a sense, my life has re-emerged from where it lay, for a while, silent, in memory.

Movement II, "POSTCARDS", is inspired by my mentor and friend, composer Donald Erb, who had his own near-death experience about a year later in the same Ithaca, New York hospital (a bizarre coincidence).  I know that he shared many of the mental aberrations I experienced during the recovery process, and POSTCARDS reflects the strange visions, the elusive but more and more frequent moments of clarity, and the eventual return to reality that such experiences create.  For me, in retrospect, these thoughts were like vivid postcards of other realities, sent to me by another part of my mind and filtered through the pain, the fear, and the medications that I had been given.  There was also a highly obsessive quality to my thoughts during the reco-very, which is reflected in the primary melodic material which simply refuses to disappear, though it changes colors, dynamics, and tempos at every turn.

Postcards -- real postcards, that is -- also played a role in my experiences.  While recovering, I received a post card (often of questionable taste) every two or three days from Don.  When it was his turn to be in recovery, it was my turn to send him postcards (equally questionable)...they seem now to me to be a lifeline to reality from people who are eager to welcome us back.

A quote was inspirational for this second movement as well, this time from Hermann Hesse’s Damien:

“In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.”

The final movement is a reflection on the amazing, wonderful, and sometimes difficult life of my colleague, Robert Cooper.  Robert had, without a doubt, the speediest metabolism of anyone I have ever known.  Lunch with Robert could be defined as both of us eating for the first five minutes and Robert watching me finish eating for the last 45.  Robert had two computers in his office and a phone; often all three were busy at once, while he carried on at least one additional conversation with whomever was present.  Yet Robert had great depth too.  He was a living example to students and colleagues, especially in facing life’s travails with courage and conviction.  He was also funny as hell.  I suppose that Robert’s pace was impossible to sustain, and in fact he died suddenly at age 45 on September 18, 1997. 

No quotations needed with this movement.  This one’s for you, man.


EDGES Movement III OhMan for wind ensemble

EDGES Movement II Postcards for wind ensemble

EDGES Movement I Back from the Edge for wind ensemble

A setting of G.K. Chesterton's poem by the same name for SATB choir.

The Christ - Child Lay On Mary's Lap

Somedays are weirder than others. Made this while playing with Native Instruments Reaktor and Omnisphere back in 2012. Added the "Speak and Spell" portion in 2020.

Y - Steven Bryant (2012, 2020)

A calm, pulsing, ambient cascade of sound.

Solitude - Steven Bryant (2017)

A fun side project using a looped chord progression from an aria I'm writing with Kevin Noe and Lindsay Kesselman for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. 80s arpeggiated synths.

Followers - Steven Bryant (2020)

High-energy running music I made in 2012, back when I actually ran. I recall the tempo wasn't in sync with my running tempo, but whatever. The prior version is still posted here, as well, but this has a few tweaks to it I made last year (I don't recall the exact differences).

Laufen - Steven Bryant (2012, rev. 2019)

Ambient traveling music for staying home.

Leaving - Steven Bryant (2016)

"A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure." In the style of Vangelis' Bladerunner soundtrack.

Off-World - Steven Bryant (2017, 2020)

My dear friend and extraordinary cellist graciously came over and recorded both parts of this duet for me in May, 2019, without any prior rehearsal, and no click track to guide the interplay and timing of the two parts. http://www.carolinestinson.com/Default.aspx

Duet (Caroline Stinson, cello)

From 2006, this is another ambient, calm track. Beware, I played Alto Saxophone on this one. And Claves.

N9 - Steven Bryant (2006)

The Florida State University Wind Orchestra
Richard Clary, conductor

Ruby Diamond Concert Hall, Tallahassee FL, April 15, 2013

Sowing Useful Truths

Jonathan Newman composes music rich with rhythmic drive and intricate sophistication, creating broadly colored musical works that incorporate styles of pop, blues, jazz, folk, and funk into otherwise classical models. Trained as a pianist, trombonist, and singer, his work is informed by an upbringing performing in orchestras, singing in jazz choirs, playing in marching bands, and accompanying himself in talent shows. From opera to bubblegum pop, Newman delivers a new perspective on American concert music. Recent work includes MASS, a large-scale project with texts by poet Victoria Chang which premiered in 2018 with The Choir of Trinity Wall Street as part of their Mass Reimaginings commissioning program. In 2016 he was appointed Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras Composer-in-Residence; CYSO’s 2011 commission BLOW IT UP, START AGAIN has been performed by orchestras worldwide, including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the 2015 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the 2015 BBC Proms. He is currently working with playwright Gary Winter on an imaginary ballet suite project for the Florida State University Wind Orchestra. He resides in Virginia, where he serves as Director of Composition & Coordinator of New Music at Shenandoah Conservatory.

Sowing Useful Truths

jonathannewman

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